Amazon Plans 7.65GW Off-Grid Gas Plant in Texas to Power AI Data Center

Amazon has acquired land and state permits in Pecos County, Texas, to build an AI data center campus fed by its own 7.65-gigawatt natural gas power plant—initially disconnected from the state grid. The site, known as GW Ranch, holds a permit to emit up to 33 million tons of carbon dioxide per year, which would make it the single largest pollution source in the United States, surpassing the country’s biggest coal plant. That sits awkwardly against Amazon’s public pledge to hit net-zero emissions by 2040. The company has already filed three construction permits and begun clearing land, per satellite imagery, joining Microsoft, Google, and Meta in building self-owned, off-grid gas generation for compute.

Amazon is framing the project defensively: it points to 10 gigawatts of carbon-free energy across 40 Texas projects and notes that GW Ranch will draw on brackish, non-potable groundwater rather than water suited for drinking or irrigation. But amid regional drought, the claim that the facility relies on ‘unusable’ water invites scrutiny, and running a dedicated plant does little to address concerns about emissions from a gas facility larger than any other in the nation.

The broader significance is political and infrastructural. Building off-grid generation lets hyperscalers sidestep grid-connection delays and the utility-rate spikes and brownouts that grid-tied data centers can trigger—but it concentrates enormous emissions in one location. Data centers are increasingly unpopular across the political spectrum, including in deeply Republican rural Texas, because they create few local jobs while imposing environmental and grid costs. Now that the plan is public, Amazon faces the likelihood of significant local and bipartisan backlash.